Border Arrests Decline Again

The number of people caught illegally entering the U.S. dropped by more than 23% during the past year, continuing a longer trend, federal data shows.

The struggling U.S. economy and rising joblessness are major factors behind the decline. But government officials say investment in border security since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, also has deterred illegal immigration.

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Members of the media last month outside a tunnel near the U.S. border in Tijuana, Mexico, that may have been planned for smuggling migrants or drugs.
Associated Press

Drug seizures along the border, meanwhile, rose over the same period, according to the government. Authorities say tougher enforcement has forced smugglers to try such methods as flying ultra-light aircraft over border fences.

U.S. border apprehensions dropped to 556,041 in fiscal year 2009 -- which ended Sept. 30 -- compared with 723,825 in the 2008 fiscal year. Border apprehensions have fallen nearly 67% decline since fiscal year 2000, when the border patrol made 1,675,438 arrests.

The Obama administration will use evidence of tougher border enforcement as part of its strategy to win support for a congressional overhaul of the U.S. immigration system next year. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano is scheduled to give a speech about the administration's plans Friday at the Center for American Progress, a Democrat-affiliated think tank in Washington.

Some state and local officials along the U.S.-Mexico border, including Republican Texas Gov. Rick Perry, have said federal enforcement needed to be tougher. Mr. Perry recently said he would send teams of Texas Rangers to beef up security along the frontier.

The U.S. has nearly doubled the number of border-patrol agents in the past five years and uses a combination of patrols, fences, electronic sensors and pilotless drone aircraft. The U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency, which is part of the Department of Homeland Security, is expected to release its 2009 data this week.

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The government and independent experts say there is a strong correlation between apprehensions and the number of people attempting to cross the border, especially with the sharp increase in enforcement in recent years.

David Aguilar, the border-patrol chief, says the newest data show U.S. investments in personnel, equipment and technology are creating a strong deterrent. "We have the right mix at the right places and in the right time," he says.

There are now more than 20,000 border agents, compared with about 11,000 in 2004. The agency has built fences and vehicle barriers along large swaths of the nearly 2,000-mile border with Mexico.

Funding for the border-patrol agency jumped to more than $10.9 billion last year from about $6 billion in fiscal-year 2004.

Economists say the souring U.S. jobs market is a driving force behind the decline in illegal crossings. The U.S. unemployment rate last month passed 10% for the first time since the early 1980s. Fewer jobs -- especially in trades such as construction, where migrant workers fare well -- mean fewer people are willing to risk a journey that has become more perilous and more expensive, experts say.

If the U.S. were experiencing the kind of job growth it enjoyed in the 1990s, "I would be very surprised if there would be these kinds of reductions, even with the investments that have been made," says Doris Meissner, a senior fellow at the Migration Policy Institute, a nonpartisan think tank in Washington.

The U.S. government will point to other indicators to bolster its view that tougher enforcement is paying dividends. Higher spending on more agents and equipment kicked into gear under former President George W. Bush following the 9/11 terror attacks.

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An unfinished ventilated tunnel ends 469 feet short of the U.S. border.
Reuters

Mr. Aguilar and Thomas Winkowski, who runs the more than 300 legal border-crossing stations in the U.S., say they will show record drug seizures in 2009.

Fewer illegal crossers allows the government to shift more resources to illicit trafficking, they say.

Marijuana seizures at ports increased more than 19% -- as measured in weight -- while cocaine seizures were up 53%, the agency will report this week. On land, marijuana seizures increased 37% from the previous year, while cocaine seizures were up 15%. Heroin seizures fell at ports, but they increased about 15% between the crossings, data will show.

Mr. Aguilar says his agents were finding tougher enforcement has resulted in bolder attempts to smuggle drugs and people.

There were 118 efforts detected last year to send people or drugs into the U.S. via makeshift aircraft that fly above border fences but below the 500-foot radar-detection level.

There are also growing numbers of people trying to burrow below the border and crash through fences, according to Messrs. Aguilar and Winkowski.

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